


Third Time's the Charm

by ProfessorESP



Category: The Yogscast
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Alternate Universe - Fairy Tale, Originally Posted on Tumblr, Other, Polyamory
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-22
Updated: 2015-04-22
Packaged: 2018-03-25 06:57:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,494
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3801088
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ProfessorESP/pseuds/ProfessorESP
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>During the day, Nanosounds works as a barista in a small cafe. By night, however, she finds a chance to meet the two customers she's fallen in love with on equal ground. A modern fairy tale written in a traditional style.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Third Time's the Charm

**Author's Note:**

> Originally written for the prompt "Kirinanowill fairy tale pining or coffee shop or coffee shop pining." Heavily inspired by the Grimm Brothers story Allerleirauh/Princess Thousand-furs/Catskin (this one has a different name in every translation, I swear) which is very dear to my heart. Special thanks to my sister for the idea of using a charm bracelet.

Once upon a time, there was a young grad student who worked as a barista because she needed the extra money. Her name was Nano Sounds, and there was nothing she held more dear in the entire world than her silver charm bracelet. Now, at the coffee shop where she worked there were two regulars that she was always happy to see: two men named Kirin Dave and Will Strife who were very much in love. At least, that’s what Nano assumed, and she wasn’t wrong. Both men had loved the other for years, but had never felt brave enough to admit it. And so they went on quietly loving each other and pretending they were content with friendship, and Nano went on falling in love with them and the way they loved each other from afar, until one day while making their orders she heard them discussing something very interesting.

There was going to be a street festival later that week with live music and dancing, and Kirin and Will were both planning on going. Nano looked up the times on her phone and realized that if she was careful, she would have time to go and dance for a little while and still be back in time to do her homework and get enough sleep before her morning shift at the coffee shop.

The first night of the festival, Nano changed her clothes, did her hair, and made sure her charm bracelet was secure on her wrist before leaving. It didn’t take long for her to find the festival, or to spot Will standing awkwardly on the edge of the crowd.

“Dance with me?” she asked, holding out the hand with the silver charm bracelet. He took it, and when the music started they danced quickly and gracefully, smiling at each other as they twisted in time with the music. When the song ended, Nano let go of Will’s hand and lost herself in the crowd, pushing past the dancers and running back home. She had just enough time to finish her homework and set her alarm before she fell asleep, dreaming of the song she and Will had danced to.

The next day when Kirin and Will came into the shop, Will was telling Kirin all about the mysterious young woman who’d danced with him the evening before. “I wish I’d gotten her phone number,” Will said, “or even her name.”

Nano couldn’t help but smile to herself as she made his drink. When she was putting on the lid, on impulse, she reached into the apron pocket she kept her charm bracelet in during work, pulled off one of the charms, and dropped it in Will’s cup.

Nano gave Kirin and Will their orders and waited nervously behind the counter. When Will had drank the last of his coffee, he heard a rattling noise coming from inside of the cup. He took off the lid and found inside, at the bottom of the cup, a single silver charm. Will held it up to Kirin and frowned. “I know this charm,” he said. “This belonged to the girl I danced with last night.”

He took it to Nano and asked how it got in his coffee, but she swore that she had no idea, and that she’d never seen the charm before in her life. Will left the shop with a thoughtful look on his face.

That evening, Nano changed her clothes and put on her charm bracelet and went down to the festival once again. This time, she caught Kirin on the edge of the crowd and took his hand in hers. They danced together, laughing at Kirin’s clumsy steps, until the end of the song. Nano pulled away from him and ran through the crowd and back to her apartment. She did her homework and set her alarm just as she had the night before, and made it to work just before Kirin and Will came in to order their coffee.

Kirin was telling Will all about the girl who had danced with him the night before; how graceful and beautiful she was, and how much he wished he’d at least learned her name. Nano blushed all through making their drinks, and before she put on the lid she pulled a charm off of her bracelet and dropped it into Kirin’s cup.

Kirin and Will drank their coffee and compared the two women they’d met, and when they finished Kirin was surprised to hear something rattling in the bottom of his cup. He looked inside and found a small, silver charm.

“This looks just like the charms that were on my mystery girl’s bracelet,” he said.

“Really?” Will asked. “Because it looks like the one my girl’s bracelet, and the one I found in my coffee yesterday.”

Will dug his own charm out of his pocket. Next to each other, it was clear that the silver charms were of the same make, and almost definitely from the same bracelet. The two of them asked Nano about it, but she insisted she had no idea where where it had come from. She even turned out her pockets on the counter to prove that she wasn’t hiding the bracelet. Thankfully, Kirin and Will forgot about her apron pocket, and they left the shop talking quietly to each other.

That evening, Nano changed her clothes and put on her charm bracelet and went to the last night of the festival. She ran into Kirin first, and when the music started to play she pulled him close and danced with him, moving fast and furious with the song. When it ended she slipped away, but at the edge of the crowd Will caught her arm and stopped her. “Dance with me?” he asked, and she couldn’t bring herself to say no. The second song was longer than the first, and by the time it finished Nano was so busy trying to get away that she didn’t notice Will slip a ring onto her finger.

The extra dance had cost her time, and by the time Nano finished her homework it was late into the night. When she woke the next morning, she realized she’d forgotten to set her alarm, and in her haste she didn’t have time to change out of her clothes from the night before.

Nano was tying her apron on over her clothes just as Kirin and Will walked into the shop. The two of them were talking about the dances they’d shared with the mysterious girl, and Nano’s heart was filled with equal parts happiness and regret; for although she had shared two wonderful dances with the both of them, she didn’t have the nerve to admit the truth. Even though they had both admired the girl they danced with, Nano remembered the way they looked at each other and believed she had no right to get in the way of their feelings for each other. So as a final goodbye, she took two charms from her bracelet and dropped them into Will and Kirin’s coffee cups.

Will and Kirin discussed how to find their mystery girl until they recognized the twin rattles coming from the bottom of their cups. They fished the charms out and laid them out on the table, placing the two they had found the two days previous next to them. They were all silver, all from the same set, and all like the charms on the bracelet their mystery girl had worn.

“Clearly the barista has to know something about this,” Kirin said. They went to ask Nano, and she swore she knew nothing, but Will noticed what Kirin and Nano did not: the ring that he had slipped onto the mystery girl’s finger the night before.

“Miss,” Will said, “where did you get that ring?” Nano looked at her hand in surprise; she hadn’t noticed it before.

“Could you take off your apron for us?” Will asked. Nano did, revealing her clothes from the night before underneath it. When she set it down on the counter there was a clink, and Kirin pulled out of the apron pocket her silver charm bracelet. He compared the three charms on the bracelet with the four he and Will had received, and found that they were all the same.

“I don’t expect anything,” she told them. “I know you two love each other, and I don’t want to get in the way.”

Will flushed in surprise, but Kirin took each of their hands in his and smiled at her. “A second love doesn’t always get in the way. Especially when it makes your first love stronger.”

He smiled at Will and kissed him, and then leaned across the counter to kiss Nano. Will, overwhelmed, blushed as Nano leaned forward and kissed him.

The three of them went out for dinner that night, and several nights after that, and eventually they lived happily ever after.

THE END


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